Outside In
by Anya2
Summary: 9thDoctorRose. After a year of travelling together there is still one place Rose has yet to explore...
1. Part One

**Title:** Outside In  
**Rating:** T  
**Spoilers:** Anything up to and including 'The Long Game'  
**Set:** A year after 'Rose'  
**Pairings:** Doctor/Rose

**Author's Note: **I had a sudden realisation the other night that there was one place they hadn't explored and that plot bunny mutated into this fic. This is also probably the most shippy fluff fic I've ever done. Normal I don't do out and out shippy fluff. I mix it in with action and adventure, or major angst so I'm not sure if I can pull this off. Apologies if this comes out a bit crap!

And just for Jillybean there will be some mild smut later. Only mild though because I just don't write it very well. There's also a small reference to one of her fics. Hope you don't mind, but it just fitted too well!

* * *

Rose turned the corner and immediately came to another dead end. 

Damn.

She had no choice but to admit defeat now; she really was lost. She had thought she'd finally gotten the layout of the TARDIS straight in her head. Or at least she knew enough to get to and from the places she needed to go. Apparently not.

She must've taken a wrong turn back at the swimming pool since that was the only junction she had passed between the infirmary and her bedroom. She'd only popped down there to get an aspirin for her headache. Which was now, ironically enough, getting worse than when she started as she found herself traipsing hopelessly down one identical corridor after another. There definitely should be signs on the walls or something. In the least she would make sure she carried her phone with her everywhere from now. Then problems like these could be solved by a quick, embarrassed call.

But neither of those ideas were much help now and so she continued on, trying to get a good picture in her mind's eye of where she had been so she didn't accidentally try the same route twice. The TARDIS was much larger inside than she'd ever realised though and finding her way back could certainly take some time.

Eventually, and much to her relief, she found herself back at the swimming pool, making doubly sure she followed the correct route back to her room. All she wanted to do now was lie down under the bed covers until her headache disappeared. At least she could be guaranteed some peace and quiet with the Doctor working busily away in the control room. Once he got started he could be at that for hours.

Opening the door to her room, she had already taken a step inside before she realised that the view wasn't at all right. Most obviously the floor was not where it should be - namely under her feet. She flapped wildly in the air to try to avoid falling forward, but it was already too late and her momentum took her through. She must have fallen at least ten feet down into almost total darkness before she landed on her feet with a thump. She immediately pitched forward onto her hands and knees as pain spiked through her left leg.

Sitting down, shocked, she spared a moment to take a few calming breaths before she looked around and tried to figure out what had happened. The room was, as far as she could see, completely empty, the only source of light coming from the still open door above her. The door itself was ten feet higher than it should have been. Or the floor was ten feet lower than it should've been, she wasn't entirely sure which. Either way, this clearly wasn't her room.

There was a considerable amount of pain radiating from her left ankle and she had a horrible feeling it was broken. It was certainly felt similar to when she had been six and had fallen off a swing and broken her arm. Tentatively she tried to put a little weight on it and immediately choked out a painful gasp, unbidden tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Yes, definitely broken. Not that getting up would have done her much good anyway. There was no way she could reach the door to get out.

"Doctor!" she shouted out, at the top of lungs, wondering how far from the control room she actually was, "Doctor! Can you hear me!"

The silent response convinced her she was definitely out of calling range.

Sighing worriedly, she looked around but couldn't see anything she could do.

Well, wasn't this just brilliant?


	2. Part Two

When she had first heard her name being called she wasn't quite sure whether or not she had imagined it. She'd been listening so closely for any trace of him in the last forty minutes or so, that her pain fuzzed mind was starting to play tricks on her. There were at least half a dozen times when she had thought she had heard something, called out in response and had received no answer. She knew there was good chance that this latest sound was just wishful thinking on her part too.

But then she heard her name a second time, much more clearly than the first and decided that it could be real.

"Doctor!" she called out hopefully, waiting tentatively for an answer.

She didn't have to wait long.

The thump of running footsteps was heard, and then much of the light into the room was blocked as a shadow appeared in the doorway.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked, almost frantically.

"I'm down here," she confirmed.

"Oh God," he muttered in an anxious tone, "Are you alright?"

"I think I broke my ankle."

"Oh God," he muttered again, "Wait there."

Yes, because she was really going to get up and wander off somewhere.

He disappeared slightly from view and she could just about see him tinkering with a panel next to the door, blue light shinning from the sonic screwdriver. Moments later the floor rose up to meet the door and the lights flickered on. She closed her eyes tightly shut, momentarily overwhelmed by the brightness, and by the time she had her vision back he was crouched down beside her.

"Rose, I'm so sorry," he said distraughtly, panic still evident on his unusually pale face, "I've been looking for you for nearly an hour. I was trying to warn you. I messed around with the internal configuration system and I think I broke it."

"Yeah, I think you did," Rose said, not really angry with him but in enough pain to make her tetchy.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked, gently supporting her with one hand at the small of her back. She guessed the gesture was meant to be comforting for the both of them. He certainly did look concerned which made it very hard for her to be annoyed about the fact that his playing around had caused this.

"Just my ankle," she confirmed, "I landed feet first."

He grimaced slightly and bent forward to check it out, removing her trainer and sock, and rolling her trouser leg out of the way. Her ankle was certainly very swollen and red. He squeezed it gently, and she immediately yelped in pain, looking at him accusingly.

"Sorry," he said hurriedly, moving his hand away, "It's definitely broken. You need to get to the infirmary. Come on."

He effortlessly scooped her up in his arms and she sucked in a tight breath as pain shot through her lower leg. As he hurried to the infirmary, every step jogged her unavoidably up and down and pain spiked through her with every jolt. She buried her head in the crook of his neck, trying to concentrate on the comforting scent of him and his leather jacket rather than her ankle.

"I'm sorry," he repeated into her ear, "It'll be alright soon."

Moments later they entered the brightly lit infirmary and he placed her gently down onto the bed in the centre of the room. She was a little disappointed to be torn away from him actually, despite the fact she wanted her leg fixed.

Crossing to one of the stark white units, he pulled out a small metal device that looked not unlike the sonic screwdriver.

"What's that?" she asked cautiously. It wasn't that she didn't trust him but she would quite like to know what he was going to do to her. Besides, the sonic had a horrible tendency of blowing things up.

"It's a tissue regeneration device," he explained, rolling her trouser leg up to her knee.

Rose was very glad she'd shaved her legs the day before.

"It'll accelerate the natural healing process," he said, flicking the switch and pointing it carefully at her ankle. A soft red glow emanated from it and wherever it touched her skin it left a pleasantly warm tingling sensation behind.

"It should only take a few minutes," the Doctor said in response to her curious gaze.

Rose propped herself up on her elbows, watching him work away.

"So what happened then?" she asked, more curious about the situation now the pain was fading, "Did the rooms move?"

"No," he said with an absent shake of his head, concentrating carefully on what he was doing, "They just got misshapen. That's why you found that slight discrepancy between where the door was and where the floor was."

Rose frowned in confusion, "But that should've been my room. I know I followed the right path back from the swimming pool."

"Which one?"

"Which what?"

"Which swimming pool?"

Her eyes widened "You have more than one pool here?"

He grinned, glancing up at her, "Three actually."

She smiled, shaking her head in disbelief, "What are you? Some kind of intergalactic playboy?"

He was annoyingly silent on that point, throwing her a mischievous look but declining to answer.

"There," he said, pulling the device away, "All done."

Rose moved her ankle around experimentally.

"It feels weird," she said with a small frown.

"It will do for a few days," he explained, "The tissue and nerves are all new and unused. Think of it like buying new shoes; you're going to have to wear it in."

She nodded, swinging her legs round and standing gingerly up. It felt okay. At least she could stand on it now. Taking an experimental step forward though, she quickly realised what he had meant. It was like she wasn't in complete control of her leg. - like she had sat on it and it had gone to sleep. She stumbled uncertainly forward and would have found herself on the floor again if the Doctor didn't have such quick hands which caught her by the waist, holding her steady.

"Careful," he said, not releasing his firm grip, "It'll probably be a bit weak and sore for a few days. I think it's best if you rest up in the TARDIS."

Rose pouted, in a disappointed manner.

"But we we're going to watch that star being born," she complained, "You said it was amazing. You can't just dangle 'amazing' in front of me then take it away because of a little broken bone!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Rose, it's a time machine," he pointed out, "We can go when we want."

She sighed heavily, seeing his point but not particularly happy about it. The prospect of sitting around for days doing nothing whilst there was a universe out there to experience wasn't exactly a welcome one.

"Cheer up," the Doctor encouraged, "It's not that bad. Anyway, you didn't know I had three swimming pools. Maybe it's time I gave you the proper tour. Then perhaps you won't get lost anymore."

"I wasn't lost," she protested, "I just wasn't exactly where I thought I was. Which is your fault for having three swimming pools."

"Yeah, yeah", he muttered, disbelievingly, "Come on. How about a walk in the garden?"

Her face instantly brightened, "You have a garden?"

He grinned.


	3. Part Three

According to the Doctor, the garden was in fact more like a giant greenhouse. The sky and sunshine above were all artificial and carefully controlled, although to be honest Rose couldn't tell the difference. The plants were real enough though. Trees of all shapes and sizes, bushes, shrubs, flowers, climbers, vines and a lawn perfect enough to make the people at Wimbledon jealous.

Walking through the rows and rows of flower beds, arm in arm with the Doctor, Rose shook her head in amazement.

"I can't believe you didn't show me all this before."

He shrugged, "I've never had much use for it myself. It's more a collection really. Some of these species are extinct on their own planets. Some of them are from planets that don't even exist anymore."

She caught the slightly pained tone in his voice and looked up to see it was reflected in a dark look in his eyes.

"Any man eating plants in here?" she said with a playful grin, trying to lighten the mood again.

It seemed to do the trick because his face immediately brightened.

"No," he said nonchalantly, "He's on the fifth floor."

He paused, looking mildly thoughtful before adding, "Don't go up there, by the way. He's not house trained."

Rose giggled, "Avoid going near the plants that will try to eat me. Got it."

She walked a few more thoughtful steps before curiosity got the better of her.

"So, what do you feed it on then?"

"Your boyfriends."

"Seriously?" she prompted with a weary grin.

He waved his hand in a casual manner, "This artificial fertilizer stuff. It can't tell the difference. Man eating plants are not as bright as you might think."

"Shockingly enough, I've never really thought about it."

They walked on a bit further in companionable silence. Despite her earlier protests, Rose had to admit that this was nice.

"I always wanted a garden when I was a kid," she said quietly, not entirely sure why she felt the need to tell him but carrying on regardless, "But me and mum lived in that flat all my life. We were lucky if we could get a decent window box going."

A vaguely nostalgic look crossed her features, as if she was remembering something long forgotten.

"My Nan said that when dad was alive we lived in this little house in East Ham," Rose continued, talking to herself as much as to him, "Tiny, she said, but it had a great little garden. Apparently it was my mum's pride and joy. She used to drag my cot outside so she could weed the flower beds and explain everything she was doing to me. Not that it did much good. I'm hopeless with anything that grows. I just end up killing them."

She laughed as a thought struck her, "You know she can barely look after herself at times, but give her a ratty, half dead plant to tend to and she's a miracle worker…".

She trailed off shaking her head in amazement.

"Nan said she was really upset to have to leave it, but after dad died, she couldn't afford to live there anymore. Besides, she had to go back to work so she didn't have much time for gardening."

The Doctor looked at her carefully. In the year he'd known her, he'd rarely heard her speak so openly about her family. They were so often rushing from place to place that there was just no time to think of anything but the here and now. He found that he liked hearing about her past. He liked feeling closer to her.

"Of course, you know why I wanted a garden," she said, shaking herself out of a thoughtful daze.

"No," he said, a little hesitantly.

She grinned, "Bouncy castle!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on!" she reasoned, "What kid doesn't deserve the right to eat jelly and ice cream and then bounce up and down until they're sick on their birthday!"

"Come on," he said, turning her round and heading back towards the exit, "Let's get you out of here quick before you get any funny ideas."

Rose pouted at him in mock hurt, "Spoilsport."

"Do you have idea how long it takes to get that lawn looking that good?" he complained.

"Okay, so where you taking me now then?" she asked, finding this whole experience much more exciting than she could have imagined at first, "Have you got a chocolate factory hidden away in her somewhere?"

"'Fraid not," he said, "It's something much more exciting."

"Oh yeah?" she questioned.

The Doctor grinned, mysteriously, "Well, if I told you it would ruin the element of surprise, wouldn't it? Patience is a virtue and all that."


	4. Part Four

"Oh my…." Rose muttered breathlessly as the Doctor opened the heavy oak door with a flourish and stood back to let her look inside.

His smile beamed happily at her as she stepped passed him into the room.

"It's amazing," she said softly, almost afraid to raise her voice in case she broke the near magical atmosphere of the place.

"See," he said, following her in, "I am so impressive."

Rose had been a little dubious when he had offered to show her the music room. She would have been quite happy to walk around the beautiful garden all day, basking in the artificial sunshine. It was almost as good as really being outside, even if it didn't quite smell right. But he had insisted that music room was really something and he wasn't half wrong.

It was like she'd stepped into a Jane Austen novel - or at least one of the films she had seen of them - only it was so much better in reality. The room was circular with a high domed ceiling that was covered with triangular, warm yellow panels. Each one contained its own beautiful painting of a different woman, draped with strategically placed pieces of coloured cloth. In the centre was a large, delicate looking chandelier that gave the room a warm, old fashioned glow. The walls were equally well decorated, with painted tendrils of flowers winding down the pale cream panels. There was so much ornate gold and plaster carving that Rose's darting eyes couldn't take it all in. If a person had had to make this it would have taken them years.

She wasn't so overwhelmed by the décor though that she didn't notice the centrepiece of the room; a gorgeous grand piano. Grinning she hurried over to it and sat down on the slightly worn school. Clearly it had been used a lot in the past, although the Doctor didn't really seem the piano playing type to her.

"Is this my surprise?" she asked curiously. It seemed like an odd thing for him to do. She had never mentioned that she played an instrument or anything.

"Nope," he said, brightly, rocking on the balls of his feet, hands clasped behind his back in an annoyingly smug way, "That'll have to wait until your ankle's a bit more settled."

She shook her head in despair at his secrecy, before turning back to the piano. She started tapping experimentally at the keys, managing to get through the first few notes of twinkle twinkle little star before she hit a wrong one. She smiled slightly to herself; she never was any good at this.

The Doctor grinned as he stepped up and leant on the back of the instrument, "I didn't know you played the piano."

She snorted a short laughed, "Not quite. Mum was always better than me."

"Really?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Yeah," she said, smiling at his reaction. He was right; Jackie Tyler didn't appear to be the piano playing type.

Rose frowned momentarily to herself. That was the second time she'd mentioned her mum today. In truth, she had been thinking about her a lot lately. Her birthday had passed just a month back and it was odd not to have been woken by her mum's off key singing and a hug. She wondered how many birthdays would pass before she saw her again. Despite the fact she drove her nuts most of the time, Rose did miss her. She was only now beginning to appreciate who her mum really was.

"She got banned from tech lessons at school for accidentally sawing a bench in half," Rose explained, realising the Doctor was staring at her curiously, "The music teacher was the only one who'd have her back more than necessary. Mum always said it was cos he fancied her. He taught her how to play the piano. She wanted me to learn too but I was never interested."

She smiled at her own childishness, "I wanted to do gymnastics because I liked the sparkly costumes."

The Doctor grinned, "I can just see you in a sparkly costume."

"Yeah, well you'd better keep that thought to yourself because it ain't gonna happen," Rose said with a short laugh, "I gave that all up when I was twelve."

"Why? What happened?" he asked curiously.

A wicked grin plastered itself on Rose's face.

"Boys."


	5. Part Five

"What's in there?" Rose asked, pointing to the door opposite them as they exited the music room. It caught her eye because it looked different from the rest. The wood was darker and it looked far more solid and secure.

The Doctor carefully shut the door behind them before glancing up to see what she was referring too. There was a flicker of emotion on his suddenly taut face and Rose immediately felt bad for asking. Clearly whatever it was, it wasn't something he was comfortable with.

He stared at the door for a long moment, but to Rose it appeared more like he was looking through it into whatever was beyond. And he certainly didn't like what he saw.

"It's alright," she said, touching his arm lightly, "We can go somewhere else."

"No," he said determinedly, "You should see."

He strode over there in a purposeful manner and Rose had a feeling he was facing some kind of personal demon in doing this.

She was really beginning to wish she hadn't asked now. They'd been having such a nice time and she'd just ruined it.

She watched carefully as he paused with his hand on the door handle, staring at it intensely. She stepped up beside him, placing her hand over his. A silly little gesture really.

"Whatcha waiting for?" she asked, gently.

He gave her a soft smile, "A bit of courage."

He glanced briefly down at her hand on his, "And I think I found it."

Without further hesitation he firmly turned the handle and let the door swing open. Rose peered inside, a little fearful of what she might see but confident that she was safe with him around.

The lights flickered on one by one, leading her eye line down a long gallery like room, with a high white ceiling and grand granite columns. Wooden, glass fronted display cases lined the walls and were peppered at intervals on the antique wooden floor. She frowned, stepping inside as a realisation struck her.

"I've been here before."

"Yep," the Doctor said, following her in, "It's a perfect copy of the King's Library at the British Museum. Well, technically they copied us."

She looked at him curiously.

"Long story," he muttered, brushing the matter away.

Rose had been there once before, on a school trip to look at the Elgin Marbles. Or, as she had put it, a lot of headless guys who had nothing to write home about down below. She remembered thinking that this room was pretty cool though – not that she would have dared said it out loud. Her friends never would have let her hear the end of it.

What was in here that the Doctor was so afraid of, she wondered. Glancing back at him, his face was set in an unreadable mask and she didn't feel confident enough to ask him outright. Some instinct in her gut told her it was something very unpleasant.

She took a few more hesitant steps in, glancing around apprehensively. The air in here was stale and mildly musty as though no one had been here for some time. The display cases appeared to contain a totally random collection of items, most of which she didn't recognise and so assumed they were alien. Glancing around though, one thing in the case to her left did strike her as vaguely familiar and she stepped closer, her nose touching the glass as she peered down to get a better look at it. She was just about to ask the Doctor where she'd seen it before when the memory hit her.

Van Staten had had it.

The Doctor had told him it was a musical instrument and shown him how to play it. The sound had been beautiful. In everything that had happened afterwards she had simply forgotten about it until now.

Why had he brought it here? Why had he kept it? She hadn't seen him take anything else from Van Staten's museum. Why this little thing?

As she turned back to ask him about it, her gaze fell upon something else and her heart thumped almost painfully in chest. She drew in a sharp gasped breath and found herself suddenly unable to move.

It was charred and twisted but there was no doubting what it was. A dinner plate sized piece of Dalek armour.

She turned to the Doctor the dark look on his face mirroring hers.

"Where did you get it?" she asked quietly, swallowing hard.

"Before the Time War," he said purposefully not looking at the object, "I was studying it to try to find out more about Dalek construction. We thought we could find a way to stop them."

"Why's it here?" she questioned, totally perplexed.

"Because it's all that's left," he explained softly.

And in an instant, Rose understood what this was all about.

"Everything here," she said, an overwhelmed look on her face, "All these planets are gone, aren't they?"

He nodded tightly.

Rose shook her head, barely able to take it all in. It was just too much. This room had to be three hundred feet long and every case she saw held something. It was like a memorial. A tomb.

"What happened to them?" she asked, tenderly, "The Time War?"

"Most of them, yes."

"How many?"

"I don't know for sure. Just short of two hundred, I think."

She nodded, trying to comprehend it but struggling. The only other time she had felt like this was when she had stood on that space station watching parts of her former planet drift by. It was just too big for one person to get a grip on. Every time she thought she had it straight in her head the solid idea she had fixed on seemed to vanish and mix in with the jumble once more.

Two hundred planets. That was billions and billions of people. Aliens. Whatever. All dead. Their societies, memories and cultures all gone and everything that was left locked away and collecting dust in a time machine floating through space.

It wasn't right. But it was something.

A thought crossed Rose's mind and she asked him before she realised that she probably shouldn't.

"What about your world? Is there anything in here?"

He nodded, grabbing her hand and pulling her gently towards a nondescript case to the right. He pointed inside and it took her a moment to realise that he was indicating a small, dull looking metal disc that didn't even seem to have pride of place amongst the other contents.

"What is it?"

"A coin," he said simply, "Worthless really. It wasn't even legal tender by the time the war happened. We got rid of the need for money centuries before that."

"Where'd you get it then?"

"Private collector. I helped him out with a giant paralysing bug invasion and he gave it to me. He said it was only right I have it."

He smiled slightly, "It's odd really. As far as I know it is the only thing left, apart from the TARDIS of course. And it doesn't exactly represent who we were."

"But it's better than nothing," Rose pointed out.

He nodded, grateful for her presence, "It's better than them being forgotten."

Rose looked thoughtful for a moment, before sticking her hands in her jeans pocket and pulling something out. It was a penny she'd carried with her everyday for years. She'd found it in the park the same day Jimmy had been arrested for robbery. She'd cried for hours then, realising what an idiot she'd been and scared that she'd screwed up her whole life. She'd found it as she had walked back home. Picking up a coin was meant to be lucky and she certainly felt in need of some. It hadn't always worked but she carried it anyway through force of habit.

"Do me a favour," she said, pressing the coin into his hand, "Put that in there too."

He looked at her curiously.

"I've seen the end of the world," she explained, "But it wasn't my world. Not really. I mean, look at Cassandra. If she's the closest thing to human left by then, I don't want it to be remembered that way. It wasn't who we are. Who I am."

The Doctor nodded, understanding the need to leave something behind. He opened the case and slipped the coin inside, laying it next to its Gallifreyan counterpart.

"You should probably get some sleep," he said, unable to tear his eyes away from the coin, "You look pale."

"What about my surprise?" she asked gently.

"Tomorrow," he promised.

Rose nodded, understanding. There were sometimes when he needed to be alone.


	6. Part Six

"So this is definitely my surprise," she said excitedly, almost bouncing in anticipation.

"Definitely. Absolutely. Positively. Yes," the Doctor confirmed, struggling a little to open the door with one hand whilst keeping her eyes covered with the other. Sometimes he could be so entirely thoughtless and others, like this, he could be ridiculously sweet and sentimental. Rose found it hard to keep up with him at times.

He finally got the door open and manoeuvred her carefully inside.

"It's cold," she said with a frown as she was struck by a blast of icy air.

"I hope so," the Doctor muttered, before removing his hand.

Rose actually gasped in shock. The room was entirely made of ice. Every brick, every column every tile. All but the small area they were standing on which was covered in a thick red carpet and a threadbare sofa that could really do with replacing. There was a hook on the wall and upon it hung two pairs of boots, with sharp steel blades.

"It's an ice skating rink!" Rose squealed in delight, turning round to hug him happily, "I take it all back. You are so impressive."

He grinned, thrilled to have pleased her so much.

"I thought you could do with a little exercise to help strengthen your leg up again," he said, as if to make out that that was the only reason he had done this. She knew that wasn't true though.

"Come on," she insisted, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the boots.

He pulled back a little, "No, you go ahead. I'll just sit here and watch."

"Oh, don't spoil it," she protested, "It's better with two."

He shook his head at her audacity to use that against him. She knew those words would make him agree to almost anything.

A little reluctantly he put on the boots, lacing them up tightly. By the time he had finished she was already out on the ice, gliding and twirling gracefully across the surface. She was really quite good.

"Don't tell me," he said with a small grimace as he stood up and awkwardly walked towards the rink, "You're some kind of ice skating champion and you neglected to tell me."

She laughed, "Not quite. We used to go ice skating, me and mates, every time someone had a birthday. Shireen used to fall over on purpose so that the marshal she fancied would have to come and pick her up. Then one day she went a bit too far and broke her collar bone. Our mums stopped us going after that."

"I can see why," the Doctor said, gingerly stepping out onto the slippery surface, "This is bloody dangerous."

Rose grinned, "Don't tell me you've never done this before."

"Of course I haven't!" he exclaimed, "It's totally stupid! Why would anyone want to slide around on frozen water?"

"Because it's fun," she reasoned.

The Doctor tried to move forward, his legs immediately sliding all out of control and he only just managed to stay upright by grabbing onto a nearby column.

"Oh yeah, really fun," he complained, bitterly.

Rose laughed as she skated over to him, "Come on then. Let's get you moving."

He shook his head, "Rose, this really is a bad idea."

"Probably," she said with a shrug, "But it is kind of nice to find something you're crap at."

"Oh thanks."

Grabbing hold of his hands she uncurled his fingers from their death-grip around the column and pulled him away from the safety of the edge. Skating backwards she was able to guide him along at a slow pace. He wasn't graceful or quick, that was for sure. In fact an arthritic hippo probably would have moved better, but at least he was doing it.

After a couple of minutes of leading him round by the hand he looked like he was at least getting the hang of being stable, so she decided to try something. He had to progress after all.

"Now, I'm going to let go", she warned, starting to loosen her grip.

"No, really, don't," he said, grabbing onto her hands for dear life.

"You'll be alright," she soothed, ignoring her crushed fingers, "Just don't lean back okay? Always lean forward slightly and you shouldn't fall over."

"Shouldn't?" he asked, sceptically, pouncing on the one word in that sentence that he really didn't like the sound of.

She rolled her eyes, "What's the worse that can happen? You fall over a get a sore backside for a while."

"I don't want a sore backside, thank you very much," he complained with a scowl.

"What are you?" she asked cheekily, "A Time Lord or a mouse?"

He glared at her, "You're loving this, aren't you?"

She giggled slightly, "Just a little, I promise. Come on, don't you trust me?"

He looked into her eyes and immediately saw the glint there. Of course he trusted her, she knew that. But now he had to do this to prove that he did. She was a right crafty little minx sometimes.

Carefully, Rose loosened the grip on his hands and began to back away.

"Don't worry," she said brightly, "We'll be the Torvill and Dean of the TARDIS in no time."

She let go.

For a few precious seconds he had it. He was balancing on his own and seemed rather smug about it. Then he appeared to realise that his safety net was gone, and all the confidence drained immediately out of him. His arms flailed wildly in the air and his feet slipped dangerous to one side. Rose darted forward to grab him and steady him again, but his momentum was too great. Within moments she was laying flat on her back and, to add insult to injury, he piled down on top of her with a small thud.

She looked up at him with a mildly cross expression on her face.

"You leant back," she pointed out.

"It would appear so, yes."

"I seem remember saying that was a bad idea."

"Told you this whole thing was stupid," he grumbled, "That's a totally daft rule."

"It's not a rule. It's how you stay on your feet."

She grimaced slightly as a twinge ran down her back. The Doctor immediately frowned.

"I didn't hurt you, did I? Is your ankle alright?"

She nodded, "I'm fine. Just my bum hurts. I'm not going be able to sit down for a week without wincing, you know."

He grinned at her, "I'd offer to rub it better but I know what you Tyler women are like. I'd be looking for a slap."

He immediately wished he hadn't suggested that at all as a startled look played across Rose's eyes. She was staring at him, breathing cold air gently onto his lips and he was suddenly acutely aware of every place his body was in contact with hers.

Did her lips always look that inviting or was it just because he was lying on top of her?

Suddenly there a bleep and a loud clonk from the direction of the door. The pair of them turned to look at it and then back at each other with a shared frown.

"That didn't sound too good," the Doctor admitted.

He rolled off of her, watching slightly enviously as she stood up with ease.

"May need a little help down here," he pointed out, rather pathetically.

Rose sighed, tucked her strands of loose hair behind her ear and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, dragging him on his backside towards the door.

"This is not the most dignified position for a Time Lord," he grumbled.

"Well," she pointed out, struggling a little to pull his weight along, "You should have thought about that before you leant back."

Back on the small carpeted area, he gratefully yanked the boots off and padded over to the door in his socks. Rose followed closely behind.

"What's the matter?" she asked, watching as he studied the display on the panel next to the door.

"Depends," he said, briefly, "Would you like the bad news, the good news, or the other bad news?"

Rose frowned, not liking where this was going, "Er… bad news first."

"Well," he explained, "It seems the TARDIS has found some more broken configuration systems from that small problem yesterday, and they need fixing."

Small problem? Oh yeah, he meant his pissing around which had lead to her breaking her ankle.

"And the good news?" she continued.

He grinned in smug delight, "The safety features I added to prevent accidents like yours seem to be working perfectly. Without a hitch."

Hmm. Things sounded okay so far.

"So the other bad news would be…?"

He shifted slightly uncomfortably "Well, you see this particular safety feature locks all the doors to stop anyone accidentally wandering into an unconfigured room. That's how it stops anymore accidents happening. The one slight drawback being if you're already in a room there's no way of opening it."

"So?" Rose pressed, wanting him to get to the point rather than skipping lightly around it.

"We're locked in here until the repair process is complete," he admitted. At least he had the good grace to look a little sheepish about it.

Rose's eyes widened, "And how long's that then?"

The Doctor turned back to consult the panel, "Er…According to the estimate, eight hours, forty seven minutes and thirty-five seconds."

He frowned and glanced at it again momentarily, "Sorry, twenty-five seconds."

Rose glared at him fiercely.

"What?" he asked with a shrug.

"Would you do me a favour?" she asked sweetly.

He nodded, "Sure."

"Stop playing with the TARDIS."


	7. Part Seven

The Doctor gently played with Rose's fingers, rubbing his hands over the tiny digits in an attempt to keep them warm. Stupid humans with their inefficient circulatory system. How did they expect to be able to branch out into the universe if they couldn't even survive properly on the more extreme parts of their own planet?

Now his circulation, that was biological engineering for you. Two hearts was definitely the way to go. That was the reason why he was still toasty warm and Rose's extremities were turning blue. It was also the reason why he now found himself laying on the sofa, Rose sitting between his legs, her body sprawled across his chest and his leather jacket acting as a makeshift blanket. She had been dosing on and off for hours now. Apparently the dull ache in her ankle had kept her from getting much proper sleep the night before and it was now beginning to show.

This position would have been alright for a short while, down right pleasant in fact, but it had been nearly seven hours now and it was starting to get uncomfortable. It didn't help that he was totally bored. Rose was the only interesting thing in the room, she was asleep and he didn't have the heart to wake her. Although it did give him a chance to get a good look at her in a way he wouldn't dare do whilst she was awake. For a human she was indeed quite lovely. Genetics had blessed with a face whose features complemented each other and gave her a rather adorable look. It was hardly fair really – he was sure there were people out there who weren't so lucky. But there again she didn't look as lovely now as she did when she was wide awake and there was a sparkle of adventure in her eyes. Beauty was much more than skin pulled over bones and muscle in the correct way.

He shook his head, purposefully looking elsewhere. He shouldn't be doing this. It wasn't fair and he was certain she wouldn't like it. He was a Time Lord not some kind of creepy stalker or love sick teenager, and he needed to start acting like one.

So he determinedly looked away from her face and instead busied himself with the task of keeping her fingers the right colour. He was still intent on the task twenty minutes later when he felt a subtle change in her breathing and heartbeat.

"Some company you are," he grumbled, as Rose shifted around on top of him.

"Hmm…you're warm...," she said sleepily, a dopey grin on her face.

"I've also lost all feeling in my legs," he pointed out.

Rose's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him in concern.

"Sorry," she mumbled, sitting up, her hand falling from his, "You should have woken me up."

"S'alright," he reassured, trying to grin at her bed-hair sticking out in all directions, "You make a half decent blanket actually."

She smiled, whacking him lightly on the leg in admonishment as he sat up and stretched his limbs out.

"How long have we still got?" she asked, realising he was grinning at her hair and trying to smooth it down.

He shrugged, turning round to consult the panel.

"Just over an hour," he said with a sigh, slumping back into the chair.

Rose smiled slightly. This must be torture for him. Take someone who spent their whole lives darting from one adventure to the next, lock them in a room with nothing to do and see how long it was before they were climbing the walls.

She didn't mind so much though. It had been a long time since she'd felt comfortable enough to lounge all over someone the way she had him. Mickey had been her personal sofa before the Doctor came along, and there had been no one since. And Rose was a very tactile person. She enjoyed physical contact with other people. It was why she found herself holding hands with the Doctor so often.

"It's been nice though, hasn't it?" she asked quietly, after a slight pause, hoping he'd agree.

"What has?" he asked, arching his back to get his spine working again.

"The last couple of days."

He nodded, in mildly surprised agreement, "It's been a bit more relaxing than usual, yes."

"And we got to spend time together without having to run for our lives or save the universe every five minutes," Rose pointed out.

"Yep," he said evasively, "It's certainly been different."

Different? They'd been behaving like some sort She wondered if he'd noticed that too.

Rose giggled at a sudden memory that seemed to push her thoughtfulness aside in favour of teasing him some more.

"And I get to take away the vision of you flapping around like a headless chicken on ice," she added with a smirk.

He turned and glared at her.

"Something you are going to keep secret until the end of your days," he insisted, "Or you'll find that they'll come much sooner than you hoped."

She rolled her eyes, "You're so full of rubbish. You know I have you wrapped around my little finger, my hippo on ice."

"Stop it," he warned.

"Why? Whatcha gonna do?" she challenged, her eyes glinting mischievously.

"You forget, Rose," he said with a dangerous grin, "I saw you as a baby. Had to listen to your mum rattle on about all the cute little things you do for a good twenty minutes. Most of it I couldn't care less about, I have to say, but one part was very interesting."

Rose looked distinctly worried, "Oh yeah? What's that then?"

"You have ticklish feet."

Without warning he pounced on her and she squealed and shrieked as he mercilessly attacked the first foot he grabbed hold of.

"Now are you going to tell anyone I can't ice skate?" he asked, struggling to keep a grip on her writhing form.

"Yes!" she said between breathless, giggling yelps, unwilling to surrender.

"I'm not stopping until you say 'no'," he cautioned.

Rose it seemed had a well honed fight or flight technique though. As he attacked one foot, her other one shot out, catching him hard on the shoulder. He immediately grimaced, dropping her foot and clutching at the point where she had whacked him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, instantly sitting up, her eyes full of remorse.

"You're vicious, you are," the Doctor complained mildly, rubbing at his shoulder.

Rose batted his hand away and, without thinking, yanked his jumper down at one side to get a good look at his shoulder. There was already a red foot shaped marked forming there, no doubt to be replaced by a bruise at a later point. She rubbed her fingers over it soothingly.

"Sorry," she repeated again.

"Rose," he said his voice unusually soft, "I'd rather you didn't."

She glanced up to catch a look in his eyes that seemed to make her entire body jolt and the whole atmosphere of the room changed in an instant. She couldn't help but be a little pleased that she could do that to him by simply touching his bare skin.

"Why not?" she whispered tentatively, fingers still playing across his shoulder although their purpose seemed entirely different now. How had they got to this? They'd just been messing around a minute ago.

He shook his head in an unconvincing manner, "It's not right. There were laws against this kind of thing."

"Were?" she questioned.

"Are," he insisted, "There are laws. There's just no one but me around to enforce them anymore."

"Then what's the problem?" she asked, "You must know how I feel about you – everyone else seems to. We can't go anywhere without someone thinking I'm your wife. Or prostitute."

She was trying to make him smile but his grave look only deepened.

"The laws are there to protect people like you, Rose."

She shook her head, "I don't need protecting. Especially not from you."

"They're to stop you being taken advantage of," he said, his voice pleading with her to back down. To forgot it.

Wasn't going to happen.

"So how about I take advantage of you then?" she reasoned, deciding to take a chance, trusting that her gut instinct about him was right.

She closed the gap between them and pressed her lips experimentally against his.

The small contact seemed to break whatever resolve he had maintained.

Within moments one hand was tangled in her hair and the other at her waist, drawing her hungrily closer to his body. His lips were passionate and insistent, as though something like this had been building in him for a long time. His tongue played relentlessly with hers, Rose's soft groan at the sensation only seeming to excite him more. For someone who didn't want to do this, he certainly was eager.

Her hands slid slowly up his jumper, running across the smooth, taught skin. Her fingers gently circled his nipples and he groaned deeply in appreciation.

Then suddenly he pulled away as if stung. He gave her a pained gaze before standing up and moving away from her.

"We need to stop this right now," he said grimly.

Rose's look was one of hurt confusion. What had she done?

"Why?" she asked in a perplexed tone. He had kissed her back. He'd been joining in. Why was he rejecting her?

"Because it's not right," he stated resolutely.

"Yeah, you told me," she said with a roll of her eyes, "Stupid laws. Who cares? I love you."

She knew she was taking a risk telling him that but why not? It was true and he'd have to be some kind of blind idiot not to have realised it before now.

"But it doesn't last, does it?" he muttered, bitterly.

"Eh?"

He sighed heavily, as if he was being forced into doing something he really didn't want to.

"There's no forever, is there?" he explained, "Even if we survive everything we come across, you'll still die. You'll get old and that stupid human body of yours will break down and I'll lose you. And I can't do that. It's too hard."

A small part of Rose thought that that was quite romantic in a way, but that was overwhelmed by the larger part of her that was suddenly furious that he could be so devastatingly stupid.

"I don't believe you!" she exclaimed, in angry frustration, "People do that everyday. They wake up next to the person they love knowing it could be the last time, but they don't regret the time they spend with them because it's going to end."

"They don't live as long as I have to," he pointed out, trying not to turn this into an argument, "What do you want me to do, Rose? I can't help who I am."

"Of course you can't," she agreed, almost pleading with him to be reasonable, "But I want you to do what is best for us now. Not seventy or eighty years in the future."

He shook his head firmly, "I can't. Won't."

For a moment Rose felt as if someone had stabbed her in the chest. It was just the worse pain ever – much worse than breaking her leg the day before. It wasn't that he didn't love her, that he was rejecting her because he didn't feel the same. No, this was much worse. He was rejecting her because he was too afraid to face up to what loving her meant.

With that realisation the pain in her chest mutated into something else entirely; a total loathing for the man who stood before her, pretending he was being all noble when all he was doing was running away.

"You idiot," she spat out, disgusted with him, "You think you're so superior, but you're not. We're better than you cos we accept what's given to us and we live with it. We'd do anything to be with the person we love. You can't even admit it, can you? That you love me?"

He was silent.

"You know what you are?" she said contemptuously, "You're a coward."

Rose stormed over to the still locked door, trying the handle a couple of futile times, before kicking the door hard.

"Let me out you stupid machine!" she hollered, pounding on it.

Instantly the door swung open. It seemed the TARDIS had decided that getting in the way of an angry Rose was not a good idea.

He winced as he heard a door slam in the distance., then sighed and slumped back to the sofa, cursing that for a want of self control he had ruined everything.


	8. Part Eight

"Er…Rose? We're here…" he said tentatively into the intercom as the TARDIS materialised on the Oypelian Ternst Memorial platform, specialist in star observation.

He hadn't seen her since the day before when she had stormed out of the ice room after their argument. He had heard her moving around since, but it was clear she had no wish to confront him further as she had stayed well out of his way. He wanted to try and explain things to her when they were both a little more rational, but it looked like that wouldn't be for some time yet.

Was this it then? Was she never going to forgive him? He didn't want her to leave and he still wanted to be her friend, but that look in her eyes…. She hated him. Really and truthfully hated him with a passion right now. Could she continue to explore the universe if it meant being with someone she couldn't stand the sight of?

Didn't she realise that this was already hard enough for him without her anger?

The door to the control room opened and she breezed in.

"Everything okay out there?" she asked in a curt, business like manner.

He nodded.

"Did you land us in the right time? We're here to see the birth of a star, yes?"

All the excitement in her voice at the prospect of that seemed to be gone, replaced by an iciness that made every syllable feel like a physical smack.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Good".

She brushed past him, flung open the door and stepped outside. By the time he had plucked up the courage to follow her, she had already disappeared into the crowd of other people assembled.

* * *

Rose sat down heavily on the bench next to one of the huge glass windows, staring out into the expanse in front of her. She tried to ignore the slight reflection of her own, stormy looking face, instead concentrating on the rather amazing view. A vast cloud of dark orange gas and dust loomed in front of her, filling the normal emptiness of space as far as the eye could see. Huge columns of gas rose out of it like the stalagmites had risen out of the floor of the caves she'd been made to visit during a geography trip as a kid. Apparently they were some kind of nursery and inside them stars were being born. It didn't exactly do much but it was beautiful to look at. 

And it was taking her mind off of thinking about the Doctor which was certainly a good thing.

God, did she hate him right now. How could someone so strong, brave and clever suddenly be so…? What? Weak, pathetic and stupid? That just about summed it up in her mind, even though a tiny part of her complained that that was unfair.

But she loved him and he, for whatever reason, had rejected her and that hurt.

Just as her thoughts were drifting into unwelcome areas once more, they were shoved roughly aside by a different type of sharp pain in her right foot.

"Oi!" she complained, immediately, looking up at the man who had just trodden on her, "Do you wanna watch where you're stepping?"

He was staring so fixedly out of the window that for a few seconds he didn't realise what he had done. Then he glanced down at Rose's cross face and instantly stepped back, looking apologetic.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" he said, "Are you alright?"

She nodded, trying not to be too forgiving. He was good looking though and it instantly softened her anger. He appeared to be in about his late twenties, reasonably tall, good build, with brown hair that was just long enough to run her fingers through and brown eyes that had a friendly look in them. He wore a pair of fashionable glasses that gave him a sexily intelligent look.

"No harm done," she soothed, tearing her eyes away. This was not the time to be eyeing up the locals.

She wondered if the Doctor was anywhere nearby and had seen her looking.

"Fantastic, isn't it?" the stranger enthused after a short pause.

Rose's stomach flipped. Why'd he have to use the 'f' word?

He didn't seem to notice any kind of odd reaction in her though, instead sitting down next to her without waiting for an invitation to do so. Not that she made an effort to move away.

"This is one of the most rapid-fire star birth events we've seen in centuries," he elaborated, gesturing out to the expanse in front of them, "Two galaxies collided and wham! – we get a cosmic hurricane and all sorts of exciting stuff happens."

Rose smiled and nodded, touched by his enthusiasm.

"Those nebulae, you see," he continued, pointing to the columns, "They're like stellar nurseries. The densest parts undergo a gravitational collapse and they compress down into a rotating gas globule, which quickly cools."

"How long's quick?"

"Anywhere between ten thousand and a million years."

Rose's eyebrows shot up, "I think you need to rethink your definition of 'quick'."

"Ah, but a million years is nothing but a cosmic blink of an eye," he pointed out.

She shook her head fondly. He sounded just like the Doctor.

"So what happens then?" she asked, shifting round to face him a little better.

"Well," he explained, moving closer, using his hands to demonstrate the process, "The globule rotates faster and faster, and the centrifugal force that builds up separates the parts to create a central core and a protoplanetry disk. Then, if the baby star's lucky and it has enough material, the core will become the star itself and the disk will become the planets and asteroids that orbit around it."

"And if it's not lucky?"

He shrugged, "It'll become a very dim, very tiny brown dwarf star that nobody will care about."

Rose grinned, "The universe is harsh, isn't it?"

He smiled in return at that sentiment and then looked mildly apologetic, "Sorry. I didn't mean for that to become a lecture. I can't help it, I'm an astrophysicist."

"How do you know I'm not?" Rose challenged demurely.

He shook his head, "No, you're far too pretty."

She instantly blushed the full way across her cheeks, shuffling uncomfortably in her seat.

"Well, you're right," she said after an awkward pause, still feeling a little embarrassed, "I'm not an astrophysicist. I'm just here to watch."

"Really?" he asked in surprise, "You must be pretty rich then – they don't let just anybody up here to look around."

His face suddenly screwed up and he was apologising again.

"Sorry, that was tactless."

She shook her head, "No, it's alright. And I'm not rich. A friend of mine brought me here. He's good at getting invites to things like this."

At the thought of the Doctor, Rose felt her blood begin to boil in anger again and the pain in her chest return. She wished she could settle on one reaction to him. It would make things so much simpler.

"He?" her new companion asked, trying to sound nonchalant about the matter and failing.

Rose shook her head, "It's not like that. We just travel together."

That was one thing she could be certain of now.

"Oh…" he said, nodding thoughtfully.

Rose glanced at him with a curious frown, picking up on something in his tone.

"Would that be a good 'oh' or bad 'oh'?"

He smiled. He had a lovely smile. Made his face look adorable.

"For me?" he asked, daring to glance straight at her, "A good 'oh'. Or at least I hope it is."

"Oh," she returned, with mild teasing.

There was a small pause.

"Look," he rushed, suddenly looking very nervous, "I'm rubbish at all this beating around the bush and being smooth and suave, so I'll just ask you straight off - do you want to have dinner with me tonight?"

Rose smiled gently, undeniable pleased by his offer, "Really?"

"Yeah, of course. You're pretty and you seem really nice. I'd deserve to be shot if I wasn't at least curious about you."

Rose knew she shouldn't really. It wasn't fair and probably wasn't right either. She'd told one man she loved him yesterday and now, here she was, letting herself be chatted up by another man and on the verge of accepting a dinner invitation. But if the Doctor was going to be childish about this then what did she owe him? And this guy was really sweet. She'd be a fool to turn him down.

"Okay", she said, nodding in confirmation, "Black tie?"

He gave her a cheeky grin, "Well I hope you'll wear a little more than that. Unless you were intending on causing a riot."

She laughed, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah," he said with a glint in his eye, clearly enjoying her company, "Bring yourself and a nice dress. I'll do the rest."

She looked at him for a long moment, trying to sum up in her head who he was. Handsome, clever and charming, if in a slightly awkward way. She certainly knew enough about him to guess that dinner with him wouldn't be a chore. She was just missing one vital piece of information.

"You realise, I don't even know your name," she reasoned.

"And yet you still accepted my invitation to dinner," he pointed out with a knowing look, "So that's got to be a good sign, right?"

"Maybe," she said evasively.

He had the good grace not to push her any further on that.

"My name's Matthew," he answered, and off of Rose's surprised look added, "Yeah, I know. Really old fashioned, right? My parents had a thing for classical names. I've got a brother called Daniel and a sister, Lucy. What's yours?"

"Rose."

He grinned, "Like the flower. They're extinct now, aren't they?"

Rose nodded, "I guess so. Probably."

"Then you're extra special then, aren't you? The last of your kind."

He smiled jokingly, not noticing the thoughtful expression that crossed Rose's face at that.

"Meet you here at eight?" she asked almost too brightly, shaking herself out of her stupor.

He nodded, "It's a date."

"Certainly is," she muttered to herself as she headed back to the TARDIS, feeling happier although not really sure if it was for the right reason.


	9. Part Nine

Rose sighed as she looked through the contents of her wardrobe. What exactly did you wear for a date with an astrophysicist? For that matter, what did you wear to dinner on a star observation platform floating in the middle space? Was there a dress code?

It wasn't like she could go and ask the Doctor.

She was just about to give up and go for a pair of black trousers and decent top when she remembered something. Hurrying over to the chest of drawers she pulled open the bottom one to reveal just one item; the dress she'd worn to her secondary school prom. She'd only brought it for sentimental reasons, never thinking that she would ever have occasion to wear it. It wasn't perfect but it would do.

Forty minutes later, she was just putting the final touches to her appearance and looking critically at herself in the mirror. The dress was calf length, maroon silk with thin straps and a v neck front that wasn't too indecently low cut. Pulled in at the waist, the skirt was then floaty which seemed to go well with the black strappy sandals she was wearing. She decided the corsage looked at bit silly so she pulled it off and instead poked it into her clipped up hair. That was better. Picking up her phone out of habit, she headed out into the corridor.

She had hoped the Doctor would have tucked himself away somewhere, not really wanting to have to tell him where she was going, but unfortunately for her was still in the control room when she arrived. What did she have to feel guilty about though? She wasn't exactly cheating on him after all – he didn't want her.

Walking passed him with her head held high she had almost escaped through the door before he spoke.

"Going somewhere nice?" he asked, his voice sounding odd.

She slowly turned back to look at him. The look on his face was apprehensive and with good reason. Her anger had lessened somewhat over the last few hours but that didn't mean she liked him any more than she had.

"Dinner," she said shortly, feeling no need or want to explain her actions. And, if she was honest, probably a little ashamed of herself. Have an argument with the potential love of her life and a few hours later go to dinner with the next cute guy that came along? Not really her proudest moment.

"You don't get dressed up like that for a burger and chips," he prodded, eyeing her suspiciously.

"No," she replied, irritation in her voice at his questioning and what she considered as his attempts to make her feel bad, "But you do if you're going to dinner with an astrophysicist."

"You're what?" he asked, genuinely shocked.

Rose felt pleased at the pained look on his face although she didn't like herself for it.

"His name's Matthew," she said, almost defiantly, "I met him this afternoon."

A flurry of anger flitted across the Doctor's usually unreadable features. Good – it was about time he got as upset about the whole situation as she was. Served him right.

"Well, don't you just work quick," he said bitterly, "Some pretty boy I'd imagine..."

But she wasn't going fall for that bait.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, with angry honesty, "As you pointed out I don't have all the time in the world to waste. And since you've made it quite clear that you don't want me, I need to start looking elsewhere, whether it's alright with you or not."

She walked out of the TARDIS, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Rose walked arm in arm with Matthew back towards the main observation deck where they had first met. They had left the restaurant holding hands but Rose had been uncomfortable with that and swapped position. His hands were too small and not rough enough. It was funny how you could so unknowingly get used to something. 

She had been right though, having dinner with him had been pleasant. He was sweet and attentive, he had a wonderful sense of humour and she found him very easy to talk to. She wondered how long the Doctor intended for them to stay here and if she had time to get to know her new friend a little better.

Although if she was really honest with herself she expected him to have prepared the 'I'm not sure this is working out, why don't I take you home?' speech by the time she got back. There were too many raw feelings between them for anything to be easily healed, and maybe it would be better not to try. Not that Rose wanted to go home. Whether things between herself and the Doctor worked out or not, she didn't think she could face living her tiny, limited existence anymore, not now she knew what was out here. But if she asked him to leave her here, where things were at least a little more exciting and she had a potential boyfriend in line, she may never see her mum again.

All through dinner Rose's inner monologue had be kicking and berating her. Why had she gotten herself into this situation? If only she hadn't kissed him. If only she could take back everything she had said. They were happy as friends, why had she pressed him for more? Why had she ruined it? She'd had the best life and she'd thrown everything away because she couldn't keep her hormones in check. She was such an idiot.

Hindsight was certainly a wonderful thing.

"Okay," Matthew said beside her, catching sight of her far off gaze, "I know I'm boring but I didn't expect to make you slip into a coma."

Rose looked up apologetically, shaking her head to clear her dazed thoughts.

"You're not boring," she reassured, "In fact, you're lovely. It's just been a weird couple of days for me, that's all. I think my brain's still trying to catch up."

He nodded, understandingly, "I get like that from time to time. Although it tends be just because my sums won't add up."

She gave him a slightly wry smile.

"I do sometimes have more interesting problems in my life, you know, honest," he said with a grin.

"Such as?"

He shrugged, "Well at the moment there's you."

"Oh, I'm a problem am I?" she teased.

"Yeah, actually, you are," he said, stopping and peering down at her, "You see, I haven't quite figured out yet whether or not you're going to let me kiss you and the anticipation is killing me."

Rose smiled coyly, feeling the slightest flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Handsome man talking about kissing her? Couldn't be a bad thing.

"You could always ask," she pointed out.

He smiled, slipping his arms around her waist, and pulling her closer, "May I kiss you, Miss Tyler?"

She looked down at the arms around her waist, "That's a little presumptuous, don't you think? How d'you know I'll say 'yes'."

"Gut feeling."

Rose grinned, slipping her arms around his neck, "Your gut is good."

She pulled him down to her, brushing his lips softly with hers. He was a good kisser, gentle, tender and not in too much of a hurry. It was a bit like kissing Mickey again.

But her breath hadn't caught, her toes weren't tingling and she didn't feel like flinging his clothes across the room this very instant. It wasn't like kissing the Doctor had been.

Rose suddenly pulled away, looking down, confused and disappointed.

"That bad, hmm?" Matthew asked after a moment, tilting her chin up to look at him.

She was silent, not knowing what to say.

"Someone broke your heart pretty badly, didn't they?" he said with a thoughtful frown, reading her perfectly, "And as lovely as I undoubtedly am, I'm just not him."

"You really are good," Rose said with a half hearted smile.

"But not good enough," he pointed out.

At Rose's sigh he grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her towards the bench looking out into space. Sitting her down, he joined her with a sympathetic squeeze of her hand.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling terrible.

He shook his head, "Don't worry about it. I had a great time but I wasn't planning to propose to you or anything. Not yet anyway."

She managed a small smile at his attempt to cheer her up.

"Was it your travelling companion?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Saw him wandering around earlier," he commented, "At least I know you're rejecting me for someone vaguely good looking."

Rose laughed quietly.

"So what did he do then? If you don't mind me asking."

She didn't mind at all. In fact, she was quite grateful. She told him the basics, omitting the fact he was a Time Lord whose people apparently had rules against these things, and instead saying that it was an age issue. That was another thing she added to Matthew's list of good qualities – he was a great listener. It was a shame she couldn't like him as much as he deserved.

When she finished he shook his head.

"Do you know what I think?"

Rose looked at him hopefully.

"He's completely insane."

She smiled.

"I'm serious!" he protested, "You wanna be careful. You're obviously travelling with some kind of crazed individual. He likes you, you clearly like him and if he is going let something so stupid stop you getting together then he needs his head examining."

"Try telling him that," she said bitterly.

"What are you going to do?"

She shrugged, "I dunno. Go home probably."

"But you don't want that, do you?"

"No", she admitted, "But I don't think we're going to sort this out."

"You never know," he muttered, suddenly quiet, "Now might be your chance. He looks a bit jealous if you ask me."

Rose glanced up and saw the Doctor crossing the room towards them. She sighed angrily; did he have to ruin everything?

"I'll leave you to it," Matthew said, standing up and squeezing her shoulder reassuringly, "Tell me what happens later, yeah? And good luck."

He walked off, heading in the Doctor's direction.

"Hi! Nice to meet you," he said brightly, as he passed him, "You're an idiot."

And with that he left the room.

Rose glanced up at the Doctor as he came to stand a few feet behind her, still looking a little perplexed at Matthew's comments. After a short moment she turned away with a heavy sigh. Did he have to come here now? Did he have to tell her he was taking her home her right this second? Couldn't it wait until she was in less danger of bursting into tears?

There was a long silence which Rose eventually broke when she couldn't stand it any longer.

"I backed the wrong horse, didn't I?" she said bitterly, "I should've stayed at home with Mickey and got on with my life. We could've been married by now. We could have had a future. Kids. He'd have been a great dad."

"He couldn't have given you what I have," the Doctor said with a solemn shake of his head.

"Yeah, but he never would have hurt me," she threw out, her anger flaring briefly, "He never would have put my life in danger just for a thrill."

Both true, but a low blow and she knew it, even if she didn't care. Right now he deserved to hurt just as much as he hurt her.

"You wouldn't have been happy," the Doctor continued, using a deep calming breath to help him ignore her last comment.

"And do I look happy to you now?" she asked with resentment.

He had no answer to that so he remained silence.

"And him," she said, pointing to where Matthew has left the room, "He is so lovely. So perfect and he likes me. And I'm going to let him go because…"

She didn't need to put it into words.

"I really hate you, right now," she added with some venom, "I hope you know that."

There was a long pause and the Doctor had that stony, thoughtful look on his face that she detested so much.

"Look," he said eventually, shuffling his feet in an uncomfortable manner, "I've booked you a room."

She turned back to look at him, suddenly genuinely afraid and unable to hide it, "You're just leaving me here?"

How could things been that bad that he couldn't stand having her in the TARDIS long enough to take her home?

"Only for a few days", he reassured.

She stood up to face him, not liking this at all, "Why? Where are you going?"

He shook his head, "There's just something I need to do, alright. You'll be fine here."

He placed a key tightly in her hand, "Everything's prepaid so use whatever you want."

Then he turned on his heels and headed back towards the TARDIS. Rose was so shocked that she didn't move until she heard the familiar whooshing sound of the time machine in motion. It was already too late though, and by the time she had run there it was gone.

Heading up to her room, as indicated by the number on the key, Rose felt depressed and worried. What on earth had made him leave her here like this? Where was he going that she couldn't? Was he even coming back? Maybe this was just his way of avoiding goodbyes. Maybe this was his way of punishing her.

Opening the door, she slipped inside, barely noticing how nice the room really was and how much it would have cost. She sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, tears in her eyes, wondering what she was going to do next. Was this it? Was she doomed to just sit here and hope that someday he'd come back for her?

Would see even see him again?

As she got up to find herself a tissue, wanting to dab at the tears in her eyes rather than smear her mascara everywhere, she noticed the scrap of paper sitting on the dressing table. It was so out of place in the immaculately tidy room that it might as well have been a flashing beacon. She crossed over to it and picked it up, unfolding it carefully. Written inside were three words in the Doctor's unmistakably scruffy hand writing.

_I love you._


	10. Part Ten

Three days.

Seventy-two excruciating hours.

Four thousand, three hundred and twenty agonising minutes.

There was a lot someone could do in that time – decorate a room, knit a jumper, read most of Shakespeare's back catalogue, watch the whole of Gladiator just to check out Russell Crowe's thighs - but all Rose had managed was to sit in her room and wait apprehensively to see if the Doctor would turn up. Although to be fair, the first day had passed in such a confused blur she could barely remember what she had done.

He loved her.

She couldn't even look at the declaration of it anymore because it made her feel like she was completely losing her mind. Seeing it just made her realise even more that the only reason she was bothering to continue breathing right now was to see him again, and that revelation scared her. How could she be so dependent on one person? Did that make her weak? What if he didn't come back? What would she do?

Besides there was no point in looking at the note anyway. She could stare at that piece of paper forever and not understand. It could never give her any peace. He loved her, but he had left her here. It just made no sense.

She should be happy about it. She certainly wanted to be. She wanted to jump up and down and shout out in delight. This was a good thing, right? She loved him and he loved her. Everything should be all rainbows, birds, kittens and flowers in her world right now. But he had left her without explanation and she couldn't help but wonder if this was his odd way of saying goodbye.

'_Rose, I love you but I haven't gotten over my issues, so I'm just going to abandon you on a space station. See ya. Have a nice life.'_

No, she couldn't believe that even he, with his sometimes dubious grip on appropriate emotional reactions, could do that. Not to her anyway. Not to the woman he loved.

The first time she had heard that - eight months ago now when the Dalek had held her hostage - she had been too afraid to realise that the Doctor hadn't denied it. Hadn't even tried. She'd thought about it a lot afterwards though, wondering if it was really true. But the moment was long gone and they were gleefully racing off around the universe once more, too busy getting into trouble to think about anything else. It didn't seem right to bring it up again and disturb their mostly happy existence with memories of one of the most painful incidents they had gone through together. Only in the last week or so, when she had spent so much time with him in the relative safety of the TARDIS - when they had be as close to a normal couple as they were ever likely to get - had the thought crossed her mind once more, along with something much more surprising.

She'd had fallen in love with him.

When had that happened? She didn't remember getting any warnings about it, the feeling was just suddenly there.

When had he gone from being her best friend and companion in this dangerous joyride to the being man she so desperately wanted to introduce to everybody as hers?

Was it when he had been so kind as she despondently watched parts of her former planet float by? Was it when he had told her that she looked beautiful in her Victorian garb? When he had said he was so glad he had met her as they faced the Gelth infested bodies of the dead? When he had told her in such a pained manner that he could save the world but lose her? When he had been so relieved that the Dalek hadn't killed her? When they had hugged in the church after she had let the Reapers loose on the world? Was it one of the seemingly hundreds of times they had run hand in hand, narrowly avoiding death?

Or was it simply when he had grabbed her hand in the basement of Henricks and told her to run for her life?

Rose wished she knew. Maybe then she could figure out why she loved him. What it was about him that made him so much more special than any man she had ever met, even poor Mickey who she had always adored and who treated her like a princess.

Why could she cope so well with the possibility of never seeing him again, when the thought of not seeing the Doctor half killed her?

But maybe love just wasn't meant to be analysed that much. Maybe she should just give up, sit back and see what would happen. What else could she do?

The first day after he had left her here, she had done little more than lie on the bed and think about things like that, getting more confused by the moment. The second day she had found herself a little hungry and had ordered room service, although she hadn't managed to do more than pick at the lovely food they brought up.

By the third day she had decided that she had to get out of her room or she was going to go completely nuts.

She escaped her oppressive surroundings and instead headed for the rather more amenable environment of the observation deck. The gas columns outside the window still weren't doing anything interesting, but it was better than staring at beige walls. She could hear dozens of people milling around behind her as she sat, but she never once bothered looking round to see what was going on. There was only one sound she was listening for.

She barely even noticed when someone came up and sat down next to her.

"Well," Matthew asked, tapping her on the leg to make his presence known, "What happened?"

The fact that he clearly still cared about her, even after the way she had effectively used him, was very touching and it made Rose feel a little better. He really was a nice bloke.

"He told me he loves me," she said quietly, still staring off into the distance, finding the words sounded strange on her lips. Good, but strange.

"Great!" Matthew enthused, smiling broadly.

"Then he left me," she added.

His face fell.

"Oh. For good?"

Rose shrugged, despondently, "Dunno. He wouldn't tell me where he was going."

She glanced across at Matthew and saw the pity on his face that she really wished wasn't there. It made her feel so pathetic. She sighed heavily, and slouched forward a little more, annoyed at herself for being an idiot and annoyed at the Doctor for having the audacity to do this to her.

"But if I do ever see him again one thing's for certain," she promised, grimly,"I'm gonna kill him for doing this. I can't believe he can be so thoughtless sometimes."

"But you still love him," Matthew pointed out.

"I know," she said with a wane smile, "I clearly need some kind of help."

"You never know," Matthew encouraged after a moment's silence, squeezing her leg and trying to be the voice of optimism in the face of her depressed outlook, "Maybe he's just gone to buy you a really big present."

"He wouldn't know what to get me," she muttered, answering him simply because she felt she should.

The idea was ridiculous of course but he wasn't to know that. It wasn't his fault he didn't know who or what the Doctor really was. He just thought he was a typical idiot bloke doing stupid things he would later regret.

"How about flowers?" Matthew suggested, not really getting her hint.

She shook her head, "He's got a garden full. Doesn't need to go out a buy them."

"Jewellery?"

"He thinks it's cheap decoration."

"Underwear?"

"Doesn't know what size I am."

Matthew raised an eyebrow, "Do you really want to be with this man?"

Rose laughed slightly, shaking her head.

"I know he's not like a normal boyfriend," she admitted with a fond smile, "I don't expect he ever will be. And I know we'll never have all those things that girls my age should want – marriage, kids, big house, nice car, annual holidays to somewhere hot and expensive. But I don't care because being with him is better than that. He's better than that. When I'm with him it just feels…right. Does that make any sense?"

Matthew nodded wistfully, "Yeah. Can't say I've been lucky enough to experience it myself, but I should imagine that's what love should be like."

"Then why would he leave me?" she asked in a small voice.

Matthew shook his head, "I'm sorry, Rose. I just don't know. But he must have had a very good reason, right?"

Rose nodded but wished she could be so certain.


	11. Part Eleven

**Author's Note:** This is the penultimate part. The last should be up tomorrow. Thanks to all those who've read and reviewed!

* * *

She had no idea when she had fallen asleep, but apparently tiredness had finally won out over anxious thinking some time after she had laid down on the king size bed to try to get some rest. In her fuzzy brained, half awake/half asleep state Rose imagined that she could feel someone sitting next to her, softly stroking her hair. She smiled distractedly to herself. It was nice. Comforting. She tried to force herself to fall completely back to sleep, hoping the feeling would lead to pleasant dreams where the Doctor had come back to admit all his mistakes, beg for her forgiveness and do nice things to her in penance. 

As soon as she thought about it though she found herself more awake than ever and sighed grumpily, knowing there was no chance of getting back to sleep now. It seemed even her body was opposed to the idea of them being together for a 'happily ever after' moment. It hardly seemed fair.

As she resolved herself to getting up and taking a warm, relaxing bath, she came to realise that the sensation of someone stroking her hair hadn't gone.

Mildly panicked, her eyes snapped open in shock.

"Oh, so you are awake then," the Doctor said brightly as he smiled down at her, pulling his hand away from the strands of blonde hair he'd been playing, "You humans spend a third of your lives sleeping, you know? Total waste of time if you ask me. Do you have any idea how much quicker you'd achieve things if you didn't have to sleep so much?"

Rose hurriedly sat up, staring at him open mouthed.

"Yep," he said, responding rather redundantly to her reaction, "I'm back."

She didn't know what to do or what to think, she was in far too much shock to decide. Instead, she settled on the first reaction that came into her head, realising it was probably the most honest.

She drew her hand back and slapped him squarely across the cheek, the sound reverberating loudly around the large room.

"Ow!" he protested irritably as his head snapped to one side. He clutched at his sore face, looking back at her in admonishment.

"Do you mind? That bloody hurts!"

"It was meant to," Rose muttered, her voice strangely toneless.

"There's a real violent streak in your family, isn't there?" the Doctor ploughed on, getting up to check the red mark on his face in the nearest mirror, "You'd best not turn into your mum over the next twenty years or I'll dump you on the nearest sludge covered planet."

Rose was continued to stare at him without further comment.

"You're not still angry with me, are you?" the Doctor checked after a hesitant pause, catching her gaze in the mirror, "I did leave you a note."

A note? A sodding note!

She ought to throttle him. She ought to shout and scream at him. She ought to pick up the bedside lamp and beat him over the head with it. But she couldn't because she was just too relieved to see him. He'd come back. He was standing in front of her with his stupid leather jacket and his stupid northern accent, talking to her as pleasantly as he ever had. She didn't know what this all meant, but at this very second she didn't give a damn.

Diving forward, she crossed straight over to him, flinging both her arms around his neck and hugging him towards her for all she was worth.

"Er, Rose?" he said in a rather hoarse voice after a moment, "About that violent streak of yours…You're choking me."

Feeling a little silly, she loosened her grip just enough to allow him to breathe properly. Moments later she was relieved to feel his arms slide around her waist and drag her closer still, squeezing her body tightly against his. A comforting hand ran up and down her back.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, suddenly much more serious, "I didn't mean to scare you. It'll be alright now, yeah? There was just something I had to do."

"What?" she asked, still holding on to him for dear life and unable to hide the hurt in her voice, "What could be so important that you left me like that? I've been going out of my mind. Where have you been?"

He sighed, pulling gently out of the hug and putting a few cautious paces between them as if he wasn't sure she'd understand.

"Gallifrey," he admitted in a soft, almost embarrassed manner.

Rose frowned, the situation made no clearer by that explanation, "But I thought you said it was destroyed."

"It was," he confirmed, "Still is. There's only dust and rubble there now."

She saw the flicker of pain in his suddenly clouded eyes and wanted to hug him again but forced herself not to. This was too important.

"Then why did you go back?" she pressed.

There was a long pause whilst he looked at her. Not for the first time in her life Rose found herself uncomfortable with his scrutinising gaze and turned away. She only looked up again when he clutched at her hand.

"Because I had to tell them," he explained looking at her intently, "Face to face, so to speak."

"Tell who what?" she asked with a small shake of her head, getting increasingly frustrated by his vague answers, "Doctor, you're not making any sense."

He continued to stare at her for a moment more, as if trying to make up his mind about something. Then he began to smile.

"I went back to Gallifrey to tell the other Time Lords that they can stuff it," he clarified, "They can stuff their traditions and stuff their rules. They're out of date and they're not important anymore."

He smiled wryly and gave a small shrug, "Besides, I'm the only one left now. Which technically means I'm in charge, so I think I can make up my own rules from now on. Within reason, of course."

Rose hardly dared breathe. Did this mean what she thought it did?

"And what about all those rules about not taking advantage of other people?" she asked hopefully, too nervous to broach the matter directly.

The Doctor's wide grin made her heart skip.

"They only apply in a case where said person has not made clear an express wish to be taken advantage of."

Before Rose had even figured out whether that was meant to be a thumbs up or thumbs down, he had closed the gap still between them, leant forward and pressed his lips to hers. It was nothing like the desperate passion of their other kiss. This one was sweet and a little uncertain, the kind that should happen at the end of a first date. And it meant the world to her. She resisted the urge to grab his jacket and pull him in for something deeper, wanting this moment to last in her memory just how it was.

"What about the other little problem?" she asked when he eventually pulled away, not wanting to ruin the moment but wanting things resolved, "I won't be this young and pretty forever, you know."

"There's no forever," he acknowledged thoughtfully, "It doesn't exist; the universe is just not built that way. And I'm not asking for it. Just a bloody long time will do me."

Rose's smile grew to huge proportions.

"Besides," the Doctor added, "All aging is is the body giving up the fight to keep a set of badly designed systems going."

"Are you saying I'm badly designed?" she asked with a small teasing grin.

"Yeah, in a very well proportioned way, of course," he soothed, suddenly finding his hand trailing around her hip, "And if I can manage to run a time machine then I think I can manage to find out how to fix a few design flaws in a relatively simple species like yours. No offence."

Rose shook her head in disbelief. Beat the aging process? She couldn't even begin to contemplate it.

"Do you think it's even possible?" she asked trying to keep the uncertainty from her voice.

If she was honest the thought frightened her a little. It wasn't exactly something most humans had to face. It broke everything she'd ever known about herself and her own mortality. It would require quite a shift in thought. Was she even mentally capable of living as long as he did?

She quickly decided that right now she didn't care.

The Doctor nodded, concentrating more on the idea than her reaction to it, "It must be. I mean, look at Cassandra. She was mostly human and she was over 2000 years old."

Rose frowned as an unsavoury thought crossed her mind.

"Just so it's clear; I don't want to end up as a bit of skin, right?"

"Agreed," the Doctor said, his hand skirting delicately across her waist and over a thigh, "You'd lose all these bumpy bits and I think they're strangely appealing."

"You saying I've got bumpy bits?" Rose teased again.

"Rose?" the Doctor said, looking at her with a scowl.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."


	12. Part Twelve

**Author's Note:** Well here is the final part. Many thanks for all those who have read and left reviews (both here and at Time and Chips). This part contains some suggestive smut but I'm sure I'm okay with the ratingas it's not explicit (you won't get it unless you know what I'm talking about in the first place!).

* * *

She knew the sun wasn't real but Rose was certain that she could feel the heat of it on her skin. Or perhaps that was just a side effect of laying in such close proximity to the Doctor. He always seemed to have that effect on her recently. 

It was unusual for him to be this still for so long, but they had spent all of the previous day trying to escape from a group of rather unpleasant lizard-like aliens who Rose had accidentally insulted and he seemed a little worn out by the experience. How was she supposed to know that that rather decrepit looking chair was sacred to their ancestors? As far as she was concerned it was just a place to sit down and rest her feet that were killing her from the blisters. She should have known that wearing high heels out to dinner the previous night was a mistake.

Whilst part of her was itching to get to their next destination, another part was quite satisfied to lie on the warm grass with her head on his chest and his hand gently stroking the bare skin of her midriff. They didn't have many quiet moments and she should make the most of them whilst they lasted.

Reaching across his prone body, she ran her fingers absently over his for a time before a rather naughty thought struck her and she giggled to herself. Who would've thought he'd have such talented hands? He was always tinkering with the TARDIS so she had guessed he had a deft touch, but the reality of it…

She felt a pleasant shiver at the thought.

It had been weird sleeping in the same bed as him at first. She'd made it quite clear that she had a firm rule about making guys wait at least three months before she allowed them into her knickers and he was going to be no exception. The look on his face as she had told him had been an absolute picture.

She didn't want to lose the quickly gained intimacy between them though and had been quite willing to share her bed, him sleeping in pyjama bottoms and her in flimsy night dresses. After a few nights of cuddling but resisting temptation she had given in a little and allowed his wandering hands to explore her as long as he let her do the same in return. She had found his body to be generally slightly cooler than hers which was a surprise since he had two hearts, whose strange rhythm she had slowly gotten used to. She smiled, remembering their suddenly increased pace the first time she had slipped a hand under the waistband of his trousers; she thought he was going to have a double heart attack.

Rose blushed slightly at the memory. She'd never seen a more erotic sight than the mixed look of pleasure and lust on his face as she touched him. Never felt anything as erotic as the way he writhed under her fingers. Never heard anything as erotic as him groaning her name. It had almost made her break her rule then and there.

But there was something to be said for this whole waiting thing. He had been very thorough in what she had allowed him to do and, as it turned out, he was an extremely meticulous man in everything he did. Included the excruciatingly slow exploration of her body. He managed to find parts of her that she didn't even know existed. He did things which she had no clue where he had possibly learnt them but she was very glad he had.

She sighed. Oh yes, very talented fingers.

She didn't know how she had lasted so long against his peculiar brand of torture. She would certainly have to make sure all his efforts were worth his while. She giggled to herself again at the thought of what his reaction might be if she actually did the things that were currently running through her mind.

"Will you stop it," he muttered lazily, not bothering to open his eyes.

"What?" she asked all innocence.

"Thinking whatever it is you're thinking. It's obviously dirty."

She grinned, "Is it alright if it's about you?"

He opened one eye and peered down at her, "And we males are accused of being insatiable."

She giggled again and then sighed as his fingers trailed under her t-shirt a little as he continued to softly stroke her side.

They had talked a bit about the whole 'non-ageing' thing and Rose had admitted that the thought scared her. The Doctor had tried to understand the best he could but of course he had no real way to empathise with her over this. In the end they had decided to wait until she was twenty-five before even trying it. That way she could get to a decent age and it would give her time to get used to the prospect. It would also give them time to make sure that this fledgling relationship was really going to work. Not that she thought it wouldn't.

"You know, I really should go back to the space station," she said, after a long moment's silence.

"What for?"

"I never said goodbye to Matthew," she pointed, feeling a little bad about the whole thing. He had been nice to her. He reminded her a bit of Adam, only less of an idiot.

"Don't worry," the Doctor said a little grumpily, still not happy with the idea that she had been on a date with another man, "He'll get over it. He's pretty enough."

"So are you," Rose teased, running her fingers over his chest, "Especially like this."

He looked down at her with a firm look, "I am not pretty."

She laughed.

More long moments passed in companionable silence before the Doctor finally spoke again.

"Rose?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you want from me?"

She immediately sat up, looking down with him with a frown on her face as she swept her hair out of eyes. What kind of question was that?

He opened his eyes to catch her questioning glance and then sat up too, knowing he should explain.

"I mean, where do you expect this thing between you and me to go?"

She shook her head, "I don't expect anything. I don't think we need to plan ahead, do you?"

He sighed, running his fingers absently along hers, "To be honest with you I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never had to do this sort of thing. I've never really felt like this before. It's like I'm finding my feet with every step and I'm terrified of tripping over something."

Rose smiled softly, "It's always like that. No matter how many times you've done it before."

He smiled slightly in return.

"I feel like something inside me has been switched on," he said, struggling a little to explain it, "Maybe it's some long dormant genetic code. I'm the last of my kind after all. Could be a biological instinct to procreate coming out."

She laughed, not in the slightest bit offended by that. He'd always try and rationalise everything, that was just the way he was. As long as she was the beneficiary of his attentions she didn't really care what he told himself the reason was.

"Well, you can get that idea out of your head right now," she said poking him in the ribs, "I'm too young to procreate."

"I wasn't suggesting right this second," he said, smiling slyly at her, "Couldn't anyway, not with your stupid rule."

She gave him a mock scolding glare, "You'd think being nine hundred years old you'd learn to be a bit patient. Good things come to those who wait, you know."

He met her gaze challengingly, "You'd think being twenty you wouldn't have learnt to be such a tease yet."

He leant forward and kissed her passionately, allowing his tongue to full appreciate the taste of her before he finally pulled away.

"Come on," he said, gripping her hand, "I got you a present."

Ignoring Rose's inevitable questions he pulled her to her feet and dragged her through a series of hedge lined alleyways. He paused at the end to cover her eyes before leading her out into the next open area.

"What's that noise?" Rose asked, hearing a strange hissing sound.

"Early birthday present," he explained before swiftly removing the hand obscuring her view.

Straight in front of her, Rose saw the most ridiculous thing she could have ever imagined seeing inside the TARDIS. A huge, bright yellow bouncy castle, bobbing merrily up and down on the lawn ahead.

"Oh my God," she exclaimed in glee, "You're daft, you are!"

"So are you," he countered.

Rose grinned.

"Then I guess it's just meant to be," she gripped his hand tighter, "Come on then."

He resisted, holding back, "No, it's okay. You go and have fun."

"But it could be fun for you too," she said teasingly, looking up at him with mock innocence, "This bra's not as supportive as it could be. I should imagine there'll be lots of jiggling involved."

The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully for a moment as if picturing the situation. Then he grinned.

"Oh, alright then. You twisted my arm."

"Dirty pervert."

"Shameless hussy."

Rose grinned wickedly, "Well, I do like my present. Play your cards right and if you're lucky I might show you just how grateful I am."

The Doctor shook his head as he followed her helplessly. One way or another this human was going to be the death of him, he just knew it. But it would certainly be worth it.


End file.
